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Which raises an interesting question. Is it better to set the camera to, say, ISO 1600 and under-expose, or 3200 and over-expose with the same aperture and shutter speed?

John

In this situation I would be inclined to slightly over-expose at ISO 3200 and recover the highlights in pp, but there are limits - I wouldn't want to go much above ISO 6400 with the current sensors. It's not only noise that is an issue at high ISO but also loss of detail.

Also, it depends upon the scene. Small, relatively unimportant highlights can be allowed to burn out to protect darker areas from under-exposure but if the highlights coincide with the main subject it might be best to expose these correctly and allow the shadows to remain shadows, i.e. don't attempt to recover them in pp.

I know you are aware of this, John, but it's a great question to ask for the benefit of other members and visitors.

__________________John

"A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there — even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity." ~ Robert Doisneau

Over-exposure could also be interpreted as a reduction of ISO, surely? I'm fairly happy with the results I get from ISO3200 and 6400 on my E-M5i. I'd rather have a bit of noise than not get the shot at all, and imho DxO does a better job than the camera of reducing it providing you shoot raw.

This shot was much more of a challenge as it was taken at ISO 3200 on an old E-3. It has been extensively worked in pp, including the application of selective noise reduction to the shadows using Nik Dfine 2.0. There is no doubt that the MFT 16mp sensors give a much cleaner image with far greater detail at this ISO.

__________________John

"A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there — even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity." ~ Robert Doisneau

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Personally, I think for landscape, cityscape, portraits and other more critical stuff then sticking to base ISO is the best strategy. Up to ISO 3200 on the mkii, well-exposed and with good glass is usually OK. ISO 6400 works for less critical stuff if you have to go that high, but large output will give it away.